Devika - A journey unbound by time

24: Past and Present

After murmuring comforting words to Devika, Gayatri left as well. Gayatri was fuming at the behaviour of her parents. She understood that they had hated Devika when they thought that her birth was the reason their eldest daughter died. She expected them to let go of their hate now that the truth had come to light. She expected them to at least behave respectfully if not lovingly towards Devika. Angry, she stomped towards her own room. She decided that in the evening she will discuss this matter with them.

Once her Aunt left, Devika raised her head to show not a single tear in her eyes. Instead, she burst out with laughter that she had been trying to hide. Rewa held an amused as well as a concerned look in her eyes towards Little Princess. She asked, "Little Princess, do you have think Princess Gayatri will recognise that the saree you gave Queen Vaishali was one of the set that you had brought for her?"

"Ah... I don't think so.. I had brought multiple sarees for Aunt and ended up giving her the best five. This saree wasn't in the selection as the colour didn't suit Aunt's skin. Aunt hadn't seen the saree at that time." Devika replied.

"When did you get the box of herbs Your Highness?" Rewa continued.

"I just borrowed a few herbs from our healer department. Guruji was okay with me taking them." Devika revealed, smiling.

"I don't understand, Little Princess. Why did you give them gifts? In the dining room they said bad things about you, shouldn't you be angry towards them?" Rewa questioned confused.

"It is because I gave gifts that Father was able to see the ugly side of their character and exempt me from appearing before them." Devika explained patiently.

"But how were you able to guess that things would happen like they did?" Rewa asked again.

"Aren't you long winded today?" Devika countered.

"Ah... Sorry Little Princess. This humble servant forgot her place for a moment. Please punish this servant." Rewa said flustered. She had indeed stepped out of her bounds when she questioned her master repeatedly. It was just that Devika was such an easy going person that sometimes Rewa and other maids would forget their place and act as sisters to the Little Princess.

"Alright, alright... It is fine. I am not angry. I was just kidding with you. I understand your curiosity. I was able to guess the reaction based on women's intuition. There... Now are you satisfied?" Devika said getting up and walking towards her room.

'Women's intuition? But, Little Princess, you are still a child not yet a woman. How did you develop woman's intuition then?' Rewa questioned in her heart but didn't dare to voice it out.

As Devika entered her bedroom, she remembered snippets from her last life. She remembered that her grandparents had visited her in the past life only when she was about to get married. She had never got a chance to interact with her paternal grandparents as they had died long ago. So she was excited to meet her maternal grandparents. She had spent months getting thing ready for them. Excited, she had prepared few gifts for them. She had called for special things from all over the Kingdom and had selected only the best of the best. She remembered how when she had gifted a sky blue coloured saree to her grandmother, she had rejected it saying light peach was her favourite colour. Many of the outfits grandmother wore were in the same colour, so at that time Devika hadn't taken the rejection to her heart. It was only when her grandfather had refused her gift without even opening it, that she had realised that something was wrong.

This entire thing was noticed by her groom, Prince Bhadra Kumar, and it had reaffirmed his belief that Devika was a useless person. That is why in this life she had acted perfunctory and gifted them things lying around in the castle. But Devika had also acted smart and even the gifts she gave them in this life, were of significant value. It was just that she didn't expend any effort to procure them.

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In the evening, as Devika moved towards the medical facility for her training, she saw her grandfather stepping out of his rooms. Having nowhere to hide to avoid him, she boldly walked forward and greeted him.

"Good evening, Grandfather." Devika said.

However, instead of waiting for his reply, Devika dismissed him and moved ahead into the classroom. Surprised at her dismissive behaviour, King Mahendra was taken aback. As Devika continued down the passageway, many servants stopped and greeted her, she replied to all of them pleasantly. Her behaviour and movements were more elegant than her age. She behaved as a Queen is expected to behave. She didn't have the arrogance and the ignorance of a Princess but instead she displayed maturity and grace of a Queen. A frown appeared on Mahendra's forehead and he left the place after throwing an additional glance towards Devika's back. He was ashamed that even though he was an elder, he hadn't given anything to this granddaughter but had taken gifts from her. He realised that he doesn't know anything about his granddaughter while she took care to enquire about his likes and dislikes.

Entering the medical facility, Devika met Guruji and said, "Teacher, I wanted to give the test again. I want to see if I have retained any knowledge this time."

"I heard that General Abhay had cut down on your training hours with him. Your Highness must have got some time to study properly this time. Alright, give me few minutes to design a test for you. Continue your study in the meantime." Guruji said.

Inwardly she thought, 'It is actually because of the divine yantra that I got more time to study. I have already spent a week studying the books. I have to pass this time. If I fail, even after using the divine yantra then it would be better if I gave up antidote training.'

Outwardly, Devika only nodded and started reading the book that she had been carrying around the past couple of days. After a while, Guruji came to find her and displayed to her twenty different varieties of herbs.

"Little Princess, same as last time, you have to seperate these herbs into toxic and non toxic categories. You will have half an hour to get the list done." Guruji instructed.

Nodding, Devika started writing while Guruji sat in a corner quietly reading a book. After half an hour, he checked if Devika was done. Devika was writing with her head down.

Guruji felt that maybe she was cancelling and rewriting ger answers. Tests always put people under pressure and it happened with everyone. He said lightly, "Time is up Princess. Has Your Highness completed the list?"

Devika quietly gave the answer sheet to him and waited for him to check. Guruji was surprised when he saw the answer sheet. Devika had not only listed the herbs in toxic and non toxic categories but also written down a few characteristic of each herb. The most surprising thing was that each answer was correct.

"Little Princess, you have cleared the test with perfect score. Your Highness really studied hard this time. As a teacher, I feel proud of you." Guruji said smiling.

Devika laughed happily, thanked Gueuji and skipped towards her Aunt's room to share this news with her.